Andre says he’s closest to his dad. “Right now, I haven’t seen my dad in a while – not a year, but like two weeks – but I’m pretty close to him. I’ll call him on anything, I’ll talk to him on anything,” he said.

“I just gotta pretty much take care of myself, because the last two months I haven’t really been taking care of myself.”

“It’s like a huge blessing that’s awesome (Andre is sponsored by State Bicycle Co.). And it’s nice to see hard work pay off into something.”

Usually touring and living on the road isn’t ultra conducive to cycling. For Tyler Stewart though, drummer for the Barenaked Ladies, cycling has become an outlet to find solitude and sweat far from the stage. He brings his bike on tour both to ride alone, and to ride with other musicians. “You quickly identify each other and try and get out there.”

We met up with Tyler in downtown Boise and then pedaled to Hyde Park for iced coffee. Full disclosure: We let him borrow a roommate’s Schwinn Speedster. (Tyler rides a hybrid Cannondale.) Full disclosure: He bought us iced coffee.

When there isn’t three feet of snow, Tyler rides everyday he can in Toronto. “I bike for groceries, I bike to school (and) I bike my little daughter who’s 18 months right now around in the back (of the bike).”

Francis Delapena hoped to work in the BMX industry after getting bored doing work for a design start-up. “My heart wasn’t in it,” he says. “If you’re not excited on the work that you’re doing, then you’re not going to produce good work.”
Now Delapena, 28, works for Odyssey BMX managing websites and creating videos.

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Though it’s developed into a Frankenbike, Delapena still has his first bike, a blue Huffy Hyper Force that he bought from a Target in Walnut Creek, Calif when he was 11.

Delapena didn’t realize his first bicycle was a BMX bike. About a year after he got it though, he watched the X Games on TV. “I was like, ‘Whoa, these guys are doing tricks on bikes that kinda look like mine.’ And at that point I was like, ‘I want to learn how to do all that stuff.”